Rates sometimes drop because hotels might have blocked out several rooms for a on-site event like a wedding or convention. Usually, rooms are released a week or two before the event so a previously sold out hotel might suddenly have availability or the hotel may drop the rates to fill the extra supply they have.

When we went to Hawaii a few weeks ago, I actually used this strategy to find cheaper rates at our hotel. Not only did I find lower rates, our hotel offered a “best rate guarantee” (I found a lower rate on a consolidator site) which meant they not only honored the lower rate I found, they also gave me an additional 10% off that rate which saved us over $100.

Help me keep this series going! If you have any travel tips, please email me at [email protected] and your tip may end up in a future post!